Chapter 495 - Forced Cooperation
The fusion felt excruciatingly painful and long, but the reality was that it took only a short moment for W and Ed to become a whole. An Edw.
‘Phew…’ Ed felt relieved as he came out of the forge. There was no backlash during this fusion. W’s memories were seamlessly assimilated into Ed’s mind.
‘Status’ But before trying to digest these memories, Ed needed to confirm something.
[Name: Edwa&!]
Type: Level 8 Consciousness
Health: 1211/1218 (!)
Mind: 5/8 (!)
Bodies: Skeleton, Orc, Mushroom, Elf (!)
~Skills~
[Link lvl. 0]
[Fortified Mind lvl. 1]
[Assessment lvl. 4]
[Assimilation lvl. 9] (!)
[Thought Manifestation lvl. 4]
[Language lvl. 2]
[System Link lvl. 6]
[Eloquence lvl. 4]
[Sixth Sense lvl. 2]
[Body Recollection lvl. 2]
[Spiritual Mark lvl. 1]
[Transmission lvl. 0] (!)
‘Huh my mind is never full is it…’ Ed thought after sweeping his eyes past the attributes. His gaze finally landed on the skill at the end… Transmission.
He got it back!
‘Yes!!!!!’ Transmission was such a basic, who could have predicted he would end up missing it so much? It was obvious that because the skill was so basic Ed ended up completely disregarding it. When he should have done the opposite, always cover your basics.
‘Now I know why you always ask before advancing system…’ Now he knew he was being really reckless. The advancement to link was powerful but he almost screwed himself.
‘Link doesn’t seem to work on more than 3 people at level 0’ His mind power also appeared to be in a state of constant consumption despite the fact that he was merely communicating with A.
Needless to say, the best communication skill was definitely transmission. Low cost and effective, without any of the fancy gimmicks of Link. Reject Link, return to transmission.
While Ed celebrated inwardly, the system sent him a new message.
[Assimilation has met the conditions to advance, Advance Assimilation Skill? Y/N]
‘Hahahaha!!!’ That was right, Assimilation was now at level 9 and qualified for advancement. But how was the saying? Once bitten twice shy?
Between Transmission, Assessment, and Assimilation, the number one spot might very well belong to assimilation. Was he willing to risk the advancement?
‘Not this instant’ Ed was against the advancement.
‘Not until I get to level 10 or 9 once again’ He didn’t have to be bitten again by his reckless advancement. He could just use the exploit to get the best of all worlds.
In the future, Ed hoped to have at least 100 skills all coming from assimilation.
‘Well, I don’t even know if there is enough advancements for that…’ But Ed’s were allowed to have dreams. Wouldn’t he be the undisputed best if he could activate so many assimilation-like skills?
After jumping up and down joyously in the system space for a bit, Ed returned to the material world. Having regained his transmission communication with the orcs would now be very easy.
‘First let’s try to link up with Sharog though’ He formed the conjecture that he couldn’t link more than 3 times thanks to the previous failure to link with W. There was either a limit to the distance or the number of links. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
‘I need to prove that here and now’ After doing that, he could tackle the elephant in the room.
‘The outside world…’ Things were chaotic out there. Attracting more people to the cave of myths, as the humans dubbed it, would be difficult to say the least. With the ongoing wars and turmoil there was no room for kingdoms to covet any dungeons.
‘How will I fix this…?’ How could he become a global threat large enough to give the humans a sense of urgency which would in turn give the dungeon a sense of urgency. Once that occurred, the dungeon would give Ed more rewards to both strengthen and incentivize him.
‘Sharog, please come closer to me’ Ed transmitted to Sharog. She was studying some of the mushrooms Ed had grown at the moment. She didn’t hesitate to abandon that task however.
“What is it?” She asked not realizing Ed was unable to hear her. This meant she received no answer. That said, Ed was too busy trying to establish a link with her at that moment, he couldn’t reply even if he wanted to.
Realistically, activating these skills just took a small thought. The one exception was thought manifestation which required a more strong feeling. Or at least it used to since now that Ed had mind power, the thought manifestation didn’t rely on his consciousness health and didn’t need deeper consideration.
That was to say, if the link skill hadn’t yet activated despite the fact that Ed had 5 points of spirit readily available… then it failed…
‘What a horrible skill I picked’ Ed thought finally giving up. He didn’t really mean it considering that he got transmission back but he really would have been royally screwed, he couldn’t get over that thought.
Thinking back on all the advancements he had made… The advancement to link was the only that left him disappointed. It felt like a massive increase in possibility with an a massive decrease in flexibility.
‘This is all thanks to the system space’ Ed thought regrettably. Ever since it allowed him to make choices, the changes in the skills were more erratic.
‘The only indicator for how good they might be is very non-descriptive’ The rarity indicated next to the skills he wanted to advance…
‘But maybe that’s my fault’ The higher the rarity, the more powerful the skill. That seemed to be common sense. But the higher the rarity, and the more powerful the skill… The more drastic the difference between itself and its predecessor.
Overall, this was a very educational mistake he made.
‘Everyone’ Ed snapped out of his thoughts and transmitted.
‘We can return home now’ He continued much to the delight of the orcs.
“”Great!!”” This was the easiest mission of my life!!! I hate it!” “Woop woop! That’s the sound dat I’m about to leave!” The orcs celebrated this transmission and Reid who also received it was a bit dumbfounded. Why… why did he come here?
Another person who received this transmission was the human girl. She was confused by the voice in her head. W hadn’t talked to her using transmission before. The words the voice said were also confusing to her. Could she actually go home?
The truth was that the girl could indeed go home. It was just that she wouldn’t be going alone. As long as she agreed to be in a symbiotic relationship with a blood clot Ed would allow her to leave.
‘I wanted a better champion for the humans but…’ He could use the adventurer girl since that was who W brought. If she couldn’t grow strong and reach the apex of what humans could achieve however Ed could always have her act as nothing more than a supporting character.
‘Huh… I guess I’m trying to make a team of heroes and act as the demon king’ A classic plot line in novels and even games in his past life.
‘I think I’m remembering more and more nowadays’ As his consciousness health grew so did his memory space and that opened room for new memories. The system’s database was still withholding most of them though.
That aside, Ed had to put his plans into motion.
‘First however I’m going to need to do something…’ Ed said to the excited orcs who immediately froze. More waiting!?! They were convinced that Ed was just on a power trip! Do you believe we won’t step on you!?
The expressions of some orcs weren’t pretty but a couple of glares from Dakgu and Gurln set them straight. The two young commanders couldn’t mess around when their team was going out of control.
The orcs were just being themselves but being out of line after seeing what Ed could do was a dangerous game.
Ed couldn’t see them, he focused on what he needed to prepare. That was to say blood clot the girl was to have in her body.
‘To act as support she needs an organization…’ Ed thought before entering the system space. To run an organization one needed strong and competent subordinates.
Ed thus decided to create not one blood clot, but multiple. He would stuff the girl full of the little blobs so that she could distribute them amongst capable subordinates.
‘I’m also making a secret organization aren’t I?’ Those blood clot powered subordinates couldn’t wantonly expose the monsters in their body so the only option was to run a legit organization on the surface but hold deep secrets.
‘Man… It’s so hard to be a power in the shadows…’ Ed thought as he finished creating a couple of blood clots. All they really required was blood and a consciousness after all. Of course, Ed didn’t forget to let the blood chill in the system’s living room first.
After a while, Ed exited the system space and started spawning in loads of tiny blood clots in his mushroom field. Since they fed on blood they could very easily grow larger.
‘Do not harm your host, grow…’ Ed started to recite the clot commandments to them before allowing them to disperse towards their respective targets.
“Huh!?” “Why are they approaching us?” “Ah!” With so many blood clots, the girl couldn’t hoard them all, some blood clots were meant to go towards the orcs.
‘I made most of them from human and orc blood’ He wanted to prevent any weird urges from arising. The blood bat was a harsh lesson.
“Aaaah!!!” The orcs took in the blood clots happily, they were screaming in joy.
As for the adventurer girl… she could only gulp dryly and cry inwardly. One of those things moving on the ground had been inside her bloodstream…
‘Cooperate means to work together towards the same end, we can help each other out’ Ed transmitted to the girl as the small sea of blood clots started to enter her body.